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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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On the day previous to the execution of a criminal , they invite , by public placard , prayers for his happy passage to the other life . In the night of that day , the brothers , some half dozen in number , including priests , assemble in the church of S , Giovanni di Fiorentini , not far from the New Prisons . Here they recite prayers , imploring the Divine assistance in the melancholy office which they are about to perform . They then proceed to the prisons , walking , two by two , in silence , some of the brothers bearing lanthorns in their hands . On entering the chamber called conforteria , they assume the sack and cord , in which they appear to the prisoner as well as to the public . They divide between them the pious labours . Two perform the office of consolers ; one acts as . the sagrestano ; and another makes a record of all that happens from the moment of the intimation of the sentence to that of the execution . . These
dismal annals are carefully preserved . At midnight the guardians of the prison go to the cell of the condemned , and lead him , by a staircase , to the chapel of the conforteria . At the foot of the stairs , the condemned is met by the notary , who formally intimates to him the sentence of death . The unhappy man is then delivered np to the two ' comforters , ' who embrace him , and , with the crucifix and the image of the Sorrowful Mother presented to him , offer all the consolation which religion and charity can suggest in that terrible moment . The others assist in alleviating his misery , and , without being importunate , endeavour to dispose him to confess , and to receive the Holy Communion . Should he be ignorant of the truths of Christianity , they instruct him in them in a simple manner . If the condemned manifest a disposition to impenitence , they not only themselves use every effort which the circumstances of his case render necessary , but call in the aid of other clergymen . The other members of the confraternity employ the hours preceding the execution in the recital of appropriate prayers , and confess and communicate at a mass celebrated two hours before dawn . Clad in the sacco , they proceed , two by two , to the prison , the
procession being headed by a cross-bearer with a great cross , and a torch-bearer at each side , carrying a torch of yellow wax . The procession having arrived at the prison , the condemned descends the steps ; the first object which meets his gaze being an image of the Blessed Virgin , before which he kneels , and , proceeding on , does the same before the crucifix , which is near the gate that he now leaves for ever . Here he ascends the car which awaits him , accompanied by the ' comforters , ' who console and assist him to the last ; and the procession moves on to the . place of execution , the members of the confraternity going in advance . Arrived at the fatal spot , the condemned descends from the car , and is led into a chamber of an adjoining building , which is bung with black , where the last acts of devotion are performed , or , if he be impenitent , where the last efforts are made to move him to a better spirit . The hour being come , the executioner bandages his eyes , and places him upon the block ; and thus , while supported by bis confortori , and repeating the sacred name and invoking the mercy of Jesus , the axe descends upon the criminal , and human justice is satisfied . The brothers then take charge of the body , lay it on a bier , and , carrying it to their church , decently inter it . Finally , they conclude their pious work by prayer .
Excepting a few pages of similar descriptive matter , we have found in the volume nothing but extravagance and absurdity . Intelligent supporters of the Popedom , we fully believe , will be anxious to disclaim an advocate so incautious , reckless , and liable to ridicule as Mr . John Francis Maguire .
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WASHINGTON'S PART IN TPIE AMERICAN WAR . Life of George Washington . By Washington Irving . Volume IV . Bonn . The long-expected fourth volume of Washington Irving ' s history has at last made its appearance . We expressly say history , for although the three other volumes , and especially the earliest , were , as the title indicates , a biography , this fourth volume contains more historical than biographical matter ; dwells more on the events of the revolution than on the individual deeds of the republican leader . And this could not well be otherwise . General Washington himself , when applied to by his old friend Dr . Craik for materials to write his memoirs , answered that any memoir of his life , distinct and severed from the general history of the war , would be unsatisfactory to himself as well as to the world . However , in spite of the kaleidoscopic changes of this ever-changing struggle , in which Dame
Fortune -was even more unstable than is her wont , with victory up to the last moment hovering to and fro between the British and American lines , General Washington ' s venerable figure is seen standing in the centre of the grand drama , ever calm and great . In the same hour in which he sends instructions to tho commanders of the army and reports to the Congress of the United States , he g ives directions to his gardener at Mount Vernon to sow holly berries in drills . Not content with the fame of being a first-rate general , he strove , above all things , to be a worthy citizen , and a man , in the full sense of the word . It is this which raises George Washington so infinitely above the Cresars and Napoleons of all ages . Throughout all bis campaigns he kept himself informed of the course of rural affairs at his mueh-belovod Mount Vernon . By means of maps , on which every field was laid down and numbered , he was enabled to give
directions for tho cultivation of the different parcels of land , and to receive accounts of their crops . No hurry of aftuirs ever'prevented a correnpondenco with his overseer or agent ; and be , in return , exacted weekly reports . Thus lijs rural occupations wero interwoven with his military cares 5 the agriculturist was mingled with the soldier , and perhaps often predominatetlovor it . Those strong sympathies with tho honest cultivators of the soil , and that paternal care of their interests to be noted throughout his military career , may bo ascribed , in a great measure , to the influences of his distant country homo . Another elemont , too , contributed greatly to make George Washington more a soldier-citizen than a citizen-soldier , namely , the presence of his wife , who accompanied him through all the
Btorma of war ami revolution . Mrs . Washington presided with quiet dignity at head-quarters , und choc-red with her presence the wintry gloom of Valley Fprgoand other encampments . She had a'cheerful good sense , that always inudo her an agreeable companion ; was besides an excellent manager , and —honi so it qui vial y pense—had an inveterate habit of knitting . In the wintry soirees , under tents and among soldiers , she used to set . an example to her lady visitors by diligently plying her needles , knitting stockings for tho poorer of tho fighting republicans . Perhaps if Gccsar ' s wife had knitted socks , Brutus woula not have soiled his dagger . There nro in this fourth volume some very interesting details , many of them from hitherto unpublished sources , about the War of Independence . Poor Andre ' s fate occupies three chapters , in Mr . Irving ' s best manner , nnd thrilling with interest . Old wounds have been long ago healed , national jealousy between England and America has lost its sharpest stings , and in
our day , calmer readers will . be found on this side of the Atlantic to agree in the sentence of Washington ' s court-martial as regards the unhappy ydungman . A romance has been thrown round . Andre" which seems to increase with the progress of years ; yet Washington Irving , though a novelist before he became an historian , spurns romance in this case , and cites unromantic facts to prove that Major Andre" was actually a spy , and that his doom was just . He knew the risk he ran , and he faced it . George Washington was a great man , neither friend nor foe will and can deny it , but never was George Washington greater than when he answered Colonel Nicolas ' s letter . Colonel Lewis Nicolas was a veteran officer , once commandant , of Fort MifHin , who had been in habits of intimacy with Washington , and he had warmly interceded in behalf of the suffering army , neglected by the men of talk who formed the Congress . The Colonel attributed all the ills experienced by the army and the public of the United States to the existing form of government . He condemned republican institutions as incompatible with national prosperity ; and he and a number of other citizens formed a daily growing party , who looked up to Washington as the King of America . In the summer of 1782 , Colonel Nicolas writes to
Washington : — " Some people have so connected the idea of tyranny and monarchy as to find it very difficult to separate them . It may therefore be requisite to give the head of such a constitution as I propose some title apparently more moderate ; but , if all other things were once adjusted , I believe strong arguments might be produced for admitting the title of king , which , 1 conceive , would be attended with some material advantages . " Washington indignantly replies : — " Be assured , sir , no occurrence in the course of the war has given me more painful
sensations than your information of there being such ideas existing in the army as you have expressed , and which I must view with abhorrence and reprehend with severity . For the present the communication of them will rest in my own bosom , unless some further agitation of the matter shall make a disclosure necessary . But I am much at a loss to conceive -what part of my conduct could have given encouragement to an address which to me seems big with the greatest mischiefs that can befal my country . . . " . Let me conjure you , then , if you have any regard for your country , concern for yourself or posterity , or respect forme , to banish these thoughts from your mind , and never communicate as from yourself or any one else a sentiment of the like nature . " ......
This fourth volume concludes with Washington ' s election as First President of the United States of America . With resigned yet not unhopeful modesty , the author adds : — " Should the measure of health and good spirits with which a kind Providence has blessed us beyond the usual term of literary labour be still continued , we may go on , and in another volume give the presidential career and closing life of Washington . "
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ESSAYS ON NATURAL HISTORY . Essays . on Natural History . Third Series . By Charles Waterton . Longman and Co Mb . Watbexon is a favourite writer on natural history . He has been an Audubon in his way , and has met with adventures scarcely l ess wild and picturesque than those of the unparalleled American . But we are sorry that he presumes upon his popularity to gossip on ecstatic virgins , miracles , and Protestant dogmas . Nor can we praise the spirit in which , in his latter days , he debates unsettled questions as to the habits of beasts , birds , or snakes . Surely , a mild manner of disputation is more effective than flippancy or arrogance , even \ vhen the arrogance and the flippancy proceed from a gentleman aged seventy-four . We make this remark in the belief that it is proper to warn even a veteran who has no new habits to acquire , that he is in danger of misapplying his pen when he descends to ridicule and
invective . We have no doubt that many absurd errors have crept out of the nursery into our natural history manuals ; but it must be remembered that even great naturalists are at issue on important points with Mr . Waterton . After this preamble , however , we have to thank him for a book of delig htful notes , of sketches so genial , of anecdotes so pleasant , of criticism so intelligent , that it is a serious disappointment to find it spoiled by egotism and puerility . The first essay is on Monkeys . We know what disquisitions Baily founded upon the resemblance of those animals to men ; but here comes Mr . Waterton , with a very justifiable laugh at the Latinizations of tho Encyclopaedia . He refuses to discourse on the distinction between the Cereopithicus , Gallitrix , Sciureus , Oristile , Arachnoides , Subpentadactylus , Hypoxanthus , Plattixarhlni , and Pygerythroous species , and distributes them into apes , baboons , monkeys with ordinary tails , nntl monkeys with prehensile tails . The ape has no tail , and is never found out of the Old World 5 the baboon has a short tail , and also belongs to tho Old World exclusively : tho common-tailed monkey is found in both continents , brutes
the prehensile-tailed tribe in America alone . Universally , these nru , in their natural state , inhabitants of trees , like sloths ; they rarely or never resort to tho ground except through accident or misfortune . Properly speaking , the monkey is neither a quadruped nor a quadrumanua ; but the extremities of its limbs are so peculiar that it is im ^ pssiblo not to recognize them . The feet of some dogs might bo mistaken for those ot some wolves , those of tho fox for those of the jackal ; but from tho hugo ajp o ot Borneo to the dwarf sacawinki of Guiana , there is no mistaking tho hands and feet' of monkeydoin . Wo now loarn how to catch small monkeys . The mother is not to be fired at , but to bo struck with «> n arrow poisoned with wourali , winch not only relaxes every muscle , nnu provonts her clinging in death to tho branches with nor young , out spares her all suffering , nnd gives her with a death-wound ' a balmy soporific . ' At this point Mr . Waterton comes full upon tho elder nnturalists , denies that monkeys ever throw dust in self-defence at wild beiists , or hurl branches from tree tops at travellers , nnd takes a foreign author to task for desoribincr the ' hissiner words' of an ouranor outancr . One gentleman
talks of apes , called pongos , who kill many negroes in the woods , and somotimes fall upon the elephants ' which come to feed where they be , and so beat them with their clubbed fists and pieces of wood that they will run c 01 M ' V '? away from thorn ; ' another , of ourang-outangs who " carry off girls ofcigt " or ten years of age to the tops of trees . " A third ' know a nogross atLoango who remained three years with these animals . ' Mr . Waterton , whoso » -
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836 THE LEADER . |_ No . 388 , Atjgust 29 , 1857 .
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 29, 1857, page 836, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2207/page/20/
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